*Official* - Road to India in England 2011

[Cevno]

Going to be a very interesting series, too difficult to make a prediction yet though as there may be a few retirements if India win the world cup on home soil. No better way for the greats of the Indian game to go out on if it happens.

Who would retire?

Dravid and Laxman are not in the ODI team and won't play the world cup.

While even if we win the World Cup,can see Sachin retiring from the ODI team only not the test team.

 

[Jono]

No Indian test player will retire from tests if India win the WC.

 

[morgieb]

No Indian test player will retire from tests if India win the WC.

How confident are you of saying that? Admittedly Sachin is the only person with even a chance of retiring because the other 2 don't play OD cricket, but still......

 

[Jono]

I'll rephrase, no Indian test player will retire BECAUSE India win the ODI WC.

If Dravid or Laxy go, it'd have nothing to do with India winning the WC.

Sachin is the only possibility, and I think he'll keep playing tests.

 

[centurymaker]

I'll rephrase, no Indian test player will retire BECAUSE India win the ODI WC.

If Dravid or Laxy go, it'd have nothing to do with India winning the WC.

Sachin is the only possibility, and I think he'll keep playing tests.

ofcourse he will continue, he's so close to 15K runs and is ranked no.1 in the world atm
Plus, he will want to tour aus once more

 

[Cevno]

How confident are you of saying that? Admittedly Sachin is the only person with even a chance of retiring because the other 2 don't play OD cricket, but still......

I am pretty confident Sachin won't retire from Tests, whether we win the World Cup or not.
Unless something drastic occurs between now and then.

Dravid and Laxman retiring or not will not depend on the World Cup too much,though there will be more pressure on Dravid specifically as there will be calls for the "youngsters" who won the world cup to be brought into the test team ,even when in fact it would have been Sachin,Gambhir,Dhoni and Sehwag who would have contributed the most.

 

[M0rphin3]

wac.

awta

 

[vcs]

England have a 3 Test series against SL before this one, don't they? I feel it's going to be a lot closer than people expect. India in WI should also be good. They have shown good improvement recently.

 

[GotSpin]

England have a 3 Test series against SL before this one, don't they? I feel it's going to be a lot closer than people expect. India in WI should also be good. They have shown good improvement recently.

Yeah presuming key players like Roach are fit I expect the Windies to put up a big fight at home. They're really improving by leaps and bounds with new emerging batsmen.

 

[Shri]

GAGFC.

Broad to go wicketless; all other England's bowlers to bowl awesomely with awesome figures.

When has he ever had a wicket? He has always been wicketless.

 

[TT Boy]

England have a 3 Test series against SL before this one, don't they? I feel it's going to be a lot closer than people expect. India in WI should also be good. They have shown good improvement recently.

Test series starting in May. Sri Lanka have no seam attack to speak of and they are likely to go safety first and play Herath over Mendis. Chuck in the fact that only two of their batting line-up have form for scoring runs in England, I think they will struggle.

 

[vcs]

Yeah, their seam attack is a weakness, and no Murali to perform superhuman feats. Think their batting will do better there than they've done historically, though. Especially Samaraweera and Sanga.

 

[M0rphin3]

Test series starting in May. Sri Lanka have no seam attack to speak of and they are likely to go safety first and play Herath over Mendis. Chuck in the fact that only two of their batting line-up have form for scoring runs in England, I think they will struggle.

AWTA, after seeing the SL vs WI series, reckon they will struggle big time in England.

 

[Cevno]

Yeah, their seam attack is a weakness, and no Murali to perform superhuman feats. Think their batting will do better there than they've done historically, though. Especially Samaraweera and Sanga.

Didn't they draw their last series in England?

Though Murali played a big part.

 

[vcs]

Didn't they draw their last series in England?

Though Murali played a big part.

Yep they did and Murali was amazing in that series.

 

[Howe_zat]

Didn't they draw their last series in England?

Though Murali played a big part.

Yep they did and Murali was amazing in that series.

England were heavily relying on Flintoff and KP back then too. England have improved a great deal and I'm not sure Sri Lanka have.

 

[Furball]

Sri Lanka don't worry me - I don't think they've got the bowling to trouble us. Obviously you have to respect a middle order of Sangakkara-Jayawardene-Samaraweera but I'm confident our bowling attack will sort them out. Would be nice if Jayawardene passed 10,000 Test runs, such a gun.

 

[Teja.]

As to the topic of this series; Indian fans are underrating just how good a team England is right now, IMHO.

Basically Zaheer's a gun but plays only half our matches, Harby needs assistance of the pitch and/or the top order taken out to be effective. Sreesanth and Ishant are utterly dire and our selectors are unwilling to bring in solid FC performers in their places.

Sehwag is not a proven class batsman in English-like conditions, Dravid is extremely shaky right now and we still haven't found a consistently decent No.6. Gambhir is a gun and will most probably come good IMO but he's just come off a disastrous year with only one excellent series in the end(where we needed him most tbf). England have a largely settled batting line up except for finding a No.6 now that's Collingwood's gone and Bell will most likely move up.

Basically even if I assume Zaheer plays, Zaheer and Anderson cancel each other out(I do think Zaheer is slightly better to be a pedant but yeah), Harbhajan vs England and Swann vs India sounds about even, but that's about it. Tremlett is a vastly superior bowler to both Ishant and Sree. In fact, IMHO, If the pitches are bowling friendly, Tremlett is the most dangerous bowler in either side.

What scares me most is the consistency with which England have put up Immense scores against the Aussies. Harris, Siddle, Johnson, random spinner is certainly a better bowling line up than Zaheer, the current Harbhajan, Sree and Ishant. Now take Zaheer away from the equation and the thought of the series sends a number of disturbing images to my head.

Anderson-Tremlett-Broad-Swann, FMD.

It's either 2-1 or 2-0 to England.

 

[Howe_zat]

...Sreesanth and Ishant are utterly dire and our selectors are unwilling to bring in solid FC performers in their places..

Who are you and what have you done with Teja?

 

[Furball]

I'd stick with Bresnan. Man in possession and has done absolutely nothing to warrant being dropped.